D2.3.1-Report on Horizontal Int

Transcription

IST-2002- 507382
EPOCH
Excellence in Processing Open Cultural Heritage
Network of Excellence
Information Society Technologies
D.2.3.1: Report on Horizontal Integration
Due date of deliverable:
Actual submission date:
29 April 2005
28 April 2005
Start date of project:
Duration:
15/03/2004
4 Years
Ename Center For Public Archaeology and Heritage Presentation
Project co-funded by the European Commission within the Sixth Framework
Programme (2002-2006)
Dissemination Level
PU
PP
RE
CO
Public
Restricted to other programme participants (including the Commission Services)
Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the Commission
Services)
Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commission
Services)
X
Ename Expertise Center – EPOCH WP 2.3 – Interim Report Page 2 – 27/04/05
Executive Summary
The objective of Horizontal Integration activity is to identify the technologies that could
successfully be introduced in the CH domain.
The information about new technologies was gathered though different channels: a
Permanent Market Watch, consisting of internet searches, reading technology watch
reports and attending several conferences and exhibitions dealing with technology in
general and CH in particular, and a Horizontal Integration Unit, bringing together
interested network partners.
The results of this Work Package should be published on a website, to keep it dynamic
with the constant input of new information and the reaction of the reader to the posted
articles.
During the research, a number of technologies have been identified that can clearly be
earmarked as potentially promising for CH.
Most of them are centred on the personalisation of the CH experience.
An RFID or Radio Frequency Identification tag can be read from a distance, ranging
from a few cm to many meters. The identification of an object or person paves the way
to a whole spectrum of new applications and services, from asset tracking to dynamic
presentation systems.
Besides the application of the RFID technology itself, rules and standards for their use in
the CH domain need to be defined.
Another interesting technology group are PAN, or Personal Area Networks, though
communication protocols such as Bluetooth. Letting different devices communicate with
each other over a short distance, typically 10 m, let selected users talk to each other,
exchange information or collaborate in games or educational quizzes, without the
interference of other museum visitors.
The final conclusion of this Work Package is that any forthcoming technological
development will have to fit the needs of archaeologists, museums, sites and visitors. If
not, the integration of new technologies will further alienate those users from the
opportunities that are created by technology in the Cultural Heritage domain.
Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................. 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................... 3
1 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................... 4
1.1 OBJECTIVES OF WP 2.3 ................................................................... 4
1.2 NETWORK PARTNERS INVOLVED IN WP 2.3............................................. 5
1.3 LINK WITH OTHER EPOCH WORK PACKAGES .......................................... 5
2 PERMANENT MARKET WATCH ............................................................... 5
2.1 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................. 5
2.2 CRITICAL REMARKS ........................................................................ 6
2.3 THEMATIC APPROACH ...................................................................... 7
2.4 PRELIMINARY RESULTS .................................................................... 7
2.4.1 SIGHT ............................................................................ 8
2.4.2 TOUCH .......................................................................... 19
2.4.3 HEARING ....................................................................... 25
2.4.4 PLAY ............................................................................ 27
2.4.5 PERSONALISATION ............................................................ 30
3 HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION UNIT...................................................... 43
4 FUTURE OUTLINES ............................................................................. 44
5 CONCLUSIONS.................................................................................... 44
6 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................. 47
6.1 CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS............................................................. 47
6.2 TECHNOLOGY WATCH REPORTS ......................................................... 47
1 Introduction
Integrating Activities, the second workpackage of EPOCH, undertakes activities to
coordinate and integrate the work of partners and secures the correct inputs to the work
of the Network.
The goal of the EPOCH network is to formulate a research agenda to develop the proper
IT tools that optimally benefit the Cultural Heritage community.
The definition of the needs of the stakeholders in the CH domain was the first task.
WP 2.2, Vertical Integration, creates the inventory of IT technologies that are already
used in the CH domain.
Activity 2.3, Horizontal Integration has one main objective: to identify the technologies
that could successfully by applied in the Cultural Heritage Domain.
The results from this work package, together with the inputs from 2.1 and 2.2, will feed
into the research agenda.
1.1 Objectives of WP 2.3
The objective of Horizontal Integration activity is to identify all the technologies that
could successfully be introduced in the CH domain.
The process of gathering information in horizontal integration uses several techniques.
Input comes from existing reports, studies and websites, technology watch channels and
other EU projects. We also expect specific companies and network members to send us
information, and we will attend major technology exhibitions.
Following the EPOCH guidelines, a lot of information on horizontal integration should be
obtained through a "push" technique: by identifying potentially interesting companies
and research institutes and inviting them to send in CH relevant product information
whenever it becomes available, we should be able to gather a lot of information without
major effort. The motivation for companies or research centres to make this information
available is the possible inclusion in the Common Infrastructure. In some specific
companies with a high potential, good relationships will be established with specific
contact persons, typically product managers.
Within the network, a "Horizontal Integration Unit" is established by interested
network members, who report technological developments that have - in their opinion an integration potential in CH. Members of this unit will also give feedback and advice on
horizontal integration issues.
Through existing studies, typical technology watch channels and major technology
exhibitions, a Permanent Market Watch will be established. As we expect that most
technological domains that are closely related to CH (3D, visualisation, …) the focus here
will be on specific domains which are insufficiently covered today (see NoE application
areas), plus CH related domains such as tourism and education.
Permanent contacts with EU projects that have integration potential with CH will be made
through liaison officers.
When appropriate, "technology partner" agreements will be made that will allow detailed
information to be transferred under non-disclosure agreement conditions to allow proper
evaluation of new technology, and to produce well founded advice, within the constraints
of the NDA’s.
The network could also serve as an entity that obtains licenses for certain major software
platforms for evaluation, development and possible exploitation purposes, where
appropriate.
For example, some major software platforms for the mobile
communications industry offer very interesting perspectives for CH, but their price level targeted to telecom providers - is too high to allow cost effective use in CH. A network
license at highly reduced price would not create any commercial distortion but offer
interesting opportunities for monument, site and museum presentation.
From the inventory of potential technologies and the obtained expert advice a Cultural
Heritage Integration Profile will also be created, with guidelines and best practices to
integrate those technologies successfully in the CH domain.
1.2 Network partners involved in WP 2.3
•
The Ename Center for Public Archaeology and Heritage Presentation, Activity Leader
(Partner 3)
1.3 Link with other EPOCH Work Packages
Together with WP 2.1 and 2.2, the results of this Horizontal Integration will feed into the
common research agenda (WP 2.5).
2 Permanent market watch
The approach towards a permanent market watch was set out in different ways:
•
•
Internet search, reading technology watch reports, browsing manufacturer’s
websites…
Attending several conferences and exhibitions on CH and technology in general:
o Museum & Heritage Show (London, UK): 12 May 2004
o TILE trade (Maastricht, Netherlands): 17 June 2004
o CASA (Geneva, Switzerland): 7-9 July 2004
o ICHIM (Berlin, Germany): 31 August – 2 September 2004
o Media elements (Enschede, Netherlands): 11 –12 November 2004
o CAA 2005 (Tomar, Portugal): April 2005
2.1 Methodology
Trying to make inventory of all technologies that could successfully be introduced in the
Cultural Heritage domain is not an easy task at this stage in the EPOCH project. It is a bit
like trying to make a list of all the straws in the proverbial haystack, long before looking
for the needle.
As the preliminary studies on user needs (WP 2.1 Stakeholder Needs) and the success
factors (WP 2.2 Vertical Integration) are still in progress and the research agenda (WP
2.5) will only follow after this Horizontal Integration, it is hard to know where to start the
technology review.
For this reason, part of this work package will take the shape of a website.
This site is built as a weblog, or BLOG, a web technology that is proving very popular.
A blog is like a personal journal on the web or, in our case, a collaborative scrapbook.
Our blog consists of a list of pointers to other web pages about technology, new products
or developments. We will publish the most important articles in so called ‘postings’,
explaining where this technology is going and give the URL’s to the original pages.
Where appropriate, we will give our opinion about the integration potential in CH.
The weblog entries are date-stamped, with the newest post at the top of the page.
The readers – the network members – on the other hand can comment the published
postings. They will also be able to send us information, interesting links etc., by filling in
a form and sending it directly from the site.
2.2 Critical Remarks
So far, we have limited ourselves to publishing – and in most cases analysing – all
articles, reviews and uses of technology we have found. We have not researched
particular subjects, but made a selection based on the relevance of the subject to CH.
Also, we have not delved too deep into any subject – we will do this if a technology or
application proves so useful it needs further investigation.
The focus and depth of research will improve when the research agenda is defined in WP
2.5.
This information repository will grow over time and will prove useful for the work
packages that are to follow.
We have, as for the 2.2 work package, at least for now intentionally skipped all the
technologies for data capturing and recording, warehousing (databases) or the
preservation of artefacts: the different phases of the technology pipeline as described in
WP 22.
We understand that this research has to be done as well, and it will be over the coming
years.
Up to now, we have intentionally limited ourselves to those technologies that are – or
could be – used in interpretation and presentation of cultural heritage to a general public
or a specialised audience.
2.3 Thematic approach
In order to make our weblog usable and manageable, we had to divide all the postings
into subjects.
We decided to follow a thematic approach.
Since we decided to deal only with heritage interpretation and presentation, we were able
to distinguished 5 key themes around which to work.
From the definition that discovering and appreciating CH is all about sharing experiences,
between individuals or in large guided group, and that this involves the human senses,
play and interaction, the following subdivision emerged:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Sight
Touch
Hearing
Play
Personalisation
Sight regroups all the technologies about screens, projection, 3D etc.
Touch deals with human interfaces, haptics and sensors
Hearing lists techniques to produce sound, vibration or speech.
Play is about games technology, interaction, etc. Articles on artificial intelligence, TTS will
find a place here.
Personalisation deals with access control, identification, localisation – and thus WIFI,
RFID, GPS etc.
We are aware that once we start to include the other phases of the pipeline, our
subdivision will have to be reviewed, or rather broadened to include data collection and
processing, conservation and restoration, etc.
2.4 Preliminary Results
See http://horizontal-integration.blogspot.com/
For the purpose of this written report, a selection of articles that are (to be)
published on the blog are printed below.
During our research, we have encountered a number of technologies that can clearly be
earmarked as potentially promising in the world of Cultural Heritage.
Some of the things we saw were experimental, some are already applied technologies.
In many cases, these technologies are commercialised as industrial applications, in retail
or as consumer goods, or have reached the final development stage. We are convinced
that the effort required to modify them so they could be used in the CH domain is
probably relatively small compared to the cost of their initial development, requiring no
more than the right content, interface and software integration.
Defining interesting concepts for their use – or combinations of different existing
techniques into a new one – and balancing added value over cost, will be an interesting
exercise for the technology integrators and museologists.
The biggest hurdle will probably be to convince the manufacturers and vendors to look at
the CH sector and see a viable business case. As has clearly been identified in WP 2.2,
museums, sites and monuments are in no way to be compared to the private industry.
CH is not a rich market with big budget projects (with some notable exceptions). Many
museums depend of a local or higher government and are therefore bound in their
actions to a public tender. Usually this means that the firm with the lowest tender gets
the job. This makes the development and sale of a technology, and certainly of a new or
experimental technology, complicated and risky.
The following list and descriptions is by no means final or all encompassing.
It is the tip of the technology iceberg we researched this year, and a selection of the best
or most clearly defined applications we encountered.
2.4.1 Sight
Sight regroups all the technologies about screens, projection, 3D etc.
2.4.1.1 3D Visualisation techniques
There are a number of technologies available to view images in 3 dimensions.
In principle, all stereo 3D techniques share a common approach: 2 artificially created
views are displayed the same screen: one for the right eye and a slightly offset one for
the left eye. The brain puts both images together as one 3D picture.
The main problem with stereo imagery is making each eye only look at the image it is
supposed to see.
There are a number of techniques to achieve this result. The differences lay mainly in
how image separation is achieved in practice.
Two techniques to view 3D without goggles are known since the 19th century. They
involve the eyes to either cross or focus on a point behind the screen. This is called the
parallel viewing method. But these techniques are hard to master, very tiring for the
eyes and frankly not at all adapted to CH.
The old View-Master however is basically an assisted version of the parallel viewing
method.
Although a bit old fashioned, and known mainly as toys, these View-Masters should not
be completely dismissed as equipment to view 3D images of monuments or objects. If
properly adapted, they offer a very cheap and efficient alternative to a 3D display.
Most techniques used to show a stereo image nonetheless require special goggles. These
glasses all use different techniques to achieve the same result: to view two separate
images of the same scene – one to each eye – so that the brain sees it as a one stereo
(3D) image.
There are different kinds of goggles, each with their own characteristics, advantages and
price. As a general rule, the better the technology, the more expensive the goggles and
equipment is.
Goggles can be either of the passive or active kind, with anaglyph (ie. lenses in different
colours –red/green, red/blue or red/cyan) or polarized being the most common passive
goggles.
Passive goggles
An analglyph stereo picture starts as a normal stereo pair of images: two images of the
same scene, shot from slightly different positions. One image is then made all green/blue
and the other is made all red. The two are then added to each other.
When the image is viewed through the glasses the red parts are seen by one eye and the
green/blue parts are seen by the other.
This effect is fairly simple to do with photography, and extremely easy to do on a PC. The
main limitation of this technique is that because the color is used in this way, the true
color content of the image is usually lost and the resulting images are in black and white.
A few images can retain their original color content, but the photographer has to be very
selective with color and picture content.
Polarized glasses are probably the most commonly used in amusement parks and
alike. Each lens is polarized at an opposed 45 degree angle.
This setup requires two projectors, each with a polarized lens at an opposing 45 degree
angles over it, like the glasses.
The polarized lens lines up all the light waves so these are in one orientation. These can
only pass through a polarized lens that is polarized at the same angle. If the polarization
of the lens is different then it won’t let that light through.
Light coming from the projector oriented at -45 degrees will be seen by one eye, and the
light coming from the other projector oriented at +45 degrees will be seen by the other
eye. Hence, a stereo pair of images can be displayed on the same screen and the viewer
will see one single 3D image.
Active goggles
Active goggles or shutter glasses have LCD lenses which alternatively obstruct the right
eye and then the left. The speed of the shutters is in direct relation to the refresh rate of
the TV or computer monitor.
Like the other techniques, it works with two slightly offset images for each image of
video. LCD shutters cover or uncover each eye of the viewer in sequence, allowing one
eye to see one image, then the other.
CRT or “Tube” type televisions are required for use with active 3D Video Viewing
Systems. These types of televisions refresh their image in a very consistent frequency,
which makes it very easy for the 3D system to synchronize to the signal.
HDTV, Plasma, LCD, and most projection television systems refresh their image in a
random manner. This makes it impossible for the 3D active goggles to synchronize to
their signal, making them incompatible with the system. The exception to this is 3 CRT
based projection systems where all 3 colours have a synchronized refresh.
See also: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/3d-pc-glasses.htm
Using glasses to visualize 3D is cumbersome and we think not very well adapted to the
domain of Cultural Heritage. The goggles are not very pleasant to wear, are in some
cases costly, and some even need to be wired to a computer.
They also have to be distributed to the audience and collected afterwards.
3D visualisation without goggles
Auto stereoscopic screens
New display technologies are being developed that allow images to be seen in 3
dimensions without the use of these goggles.
3D images are viewed on screens that employ a technique called a “parallax barrier”, an
older but well known approach to generating a stereo image.
For single users
Sharp has developed a liquid crystal display that allows 3D viewing without the need for
special glasses.
http://www.sle.sharp.co.uk/research/3d/3dbackground.htm
The technology works by controlling the path of light so that slightly different images
reach the left and right eyes. Each eye sees only the image intended for it and the brain
combines the images and perceives them as a 3D representation. The 3D LCD combines
a conventional LCD with a Switching LCD, a proprietary Sharp development.
The screen is also electrically switchable, so users are also able to see 2D applications
such as text and images.
These auto stereoscopic monitors are starting to appear in laptop computers too.
Although they have the distinctive advantage of allowing the user to view 3D without
glasses, these images can only be viewed from one or possibly a couple of so called
‘sweet spots’, where the parallax is respected.
The parallax barrier also cuts out some of the screens brightness, and the image
resolution is lower since 2 interlaced images are displayed simultaneously. This means
that the applicability in CH is limited to research and object management, but does not
lend itself very well to visitor presentation systems where several persons have to watch
the object at the same time.
For Multiple users
X3D-Technologies www.x3dworld.de
This company produces 40” and 50” 3D Plasma screens. The system works in a similar
way to the Sharp screen, but in a larger format. Their screens can unfortunately not
switch between 3 and 2D images, and can therefore not display text in an acceptable
way. They are thus more appropriate to the visualisation of 3D virtual reconstructions of
buildings or objects at large venues, fairs and exhibitions.
2.4.1.2 Wedge Display
CamFPD, http://www.camfpd.com/, a spin-off from Cambridge University’s Department
of Engineering, have fashioned the Wedge Display, a completely new flat TV concept
relying on internal reflection.
The display uses rear-projection technology to cast images onto a screen.
With an LCD projector at the end of a wedge shaped piece of clear plastic, light is
bounced through the length of the wedge until it reaches the angle at which it escapes
the screen as an image.
This technology promises cheaper and extremely flat LCD projection TVs.
From: www.engadget.com
2.4.1.3 Mini Projectors
Researchers are working on pocket-size projectors so that one day people will be able to
see a high-resolution slide show right out of a camera, a cell phone or an organizer.
These projectors are not meant for big screen projections in meeting rooms, but for
personal use, with screen the size and brightness of a laptop screen.
Other applications may include expanded control panels cast on surfaces for PDA-like
devices.
Some projectors are based on light-emitting diodes while others use laser-light.
The problem with virtually all of them is power consumption. Recent competing
technologies however are stirring some competition to be first to market.
We are not sure if these personal mini projectors could be used in CH, but think the
technological developments should be followed up closely nonetheless.
Below is a good article from the NY Times.
New York Times, November 4, 2004
WHAT'S NEXT
For Your Viewing Pleasure, a Projector in Your Pocket
By ANNE EISENBERG
E-mail:Eisenberg@nytimes.com
It takes squinting and guesswork to make out the details of postage-stamp-size
snapshots displayed on cellphones and digital cameras. But researchers are working on
pocket-size projectors so that one day people will be able to see a high-resolution slide
show right out of a camera, a cellphone or an organizer.
In the future, the miniprojectors may also be attached to DVD players, so people can
watch a movie with a TV-quality picture on a nearby wall.
Most standard digital projectors are bulky. Even the trimmest video projectors used for
office presentations have the dimensions and the weight of a telephone book. But
prototypes of a new generation of miniprojectors, including ones only slightly thicker
than a credit card, have been developed, some based on light-emitting diodes, others on
lasers.
"There will probably be two or three different technologies for miniprojectors that will
coexist," said V. Michael Bove Jr., who has developed a prototype. Dr. Bove is director of
the consumer electronics research project at the Media Lab at M.I.T.
"The important point is that whatever the technology, there are going to be significant
differences from present office video projectors and projector TV's," he said.
For example, future miniprojectors designed to be embedded in other devices may be
used to cast images like control panels or maps onto a car dashboard.
"They are going to radically alter the way we work with projectors when you can
download a map onto a phone and point the projector at a surface to get a higherresolution image," Dr. Bove said.
There are still problems to solve before inexpensive miniprojectors the size of sugar
cubes roll off the assembly line. "It's going to take a while to make the projector design
efficient," he said. Power consumption is an important issue since in many cases the
projector would draw power from the cellphone or whatever device it is coupled to.
At present, Dr. Bove said, projection TV's and video projectors can use hundreds of watts
of electricity, but only a couple of watts at most will be available when they are powered
by batteries in hand-held devices.
Because of the challenges, Dr. Bove predicted that before the projectors are fully
miniaturized, the earliest versions would appear as attachments to laptops. "There's
more room and power on a laptop," he said. "Eventually, though, they will find their way
into hand-held products."
At Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories in Cambridge, Mass., Ramesh Raskar leads a
group that has demonstrated a pocket-size projector meant one day to attach to
cellphones, digital cameras or organizers.
Lumileds Lighting, a company based in San Jose, Calif., that makes extremely bright
light-emitting diodes, has also developed a prototype for a compact projector. Steve
Paolini, director of business development, said it was meant not for big-screen displays in
meeting rooms, but for personal uses. "Our initial goal was a screen the size of a piece of
paper," he said, "with the size and brightness of a laptop screen."
The Lumileds projector is not for sale; it was built, Mr. Paolini said, to demonstrate the
power of light-emitting diodes. "But there's no technical reason why pocket projectors
can't be built now," he said. "It's a market issue."
Lasers rather than L.E.D.'s are the basis for a hand-held projector in development at
Light Blue Optics, a company in Cambridge, England. "We want a device that you can
download films to, press a button and see a huge screen projection," said Adrian Cable,
director of the company.
The large projections are produced holographically. "These are not the three-dimensional
holographic projections of Princess Leia in 'Star Wars,' " Dr. Cable said, but instead twodimensional ones produced by an optical process different from standard projection.
Dr. Cable, who has a doctorate in holographic optics from Cambridge, said the basics of
projecting video holographically have been known for 20 years. In it, light is forced to
propagate not in straight lines but through small gaps that force it to diffract. Precise
control of this diffraction can produce holographic images.
"Historically, images projected holographically have tended to be grainy and poor in
quality," Dr. Cable said. And even when the images were acceptable, the computational
problems involved in calculating the holograms were time-consuming. "It used to take 20
minutes to calculate the hologram for one video frame," he said.
But the Cambridge group's work has resulted in improvements in image quality and
processing speed, he said. "It's much simpler to form an image holographically," he said.
"You need smaller and fewer lenses, leading to a smaller projector."
At Mitsubishi Electric, Dr. Raskar and his group have developed several methods to
demonstrate how people will interact with projector images in the future. For example,
they have developed a method to stabilize the projected image so that once it is fixed on
a wall it will not move with subsequent hand movement. Then they developed a way to
click and drag items within the projected image from one place to another, using a game
of tick-tack-toe projected on a wall as an example.
"Now you can actually interact with the projected contents," he said. "You point where
the piece is, and then drag it to where you want it to go."
Mr. Paolini of Lumileds also thinks that game playing is in the miniprojectors' future.
When he took one of the prototypes home, he said, his son started playing with it on his
bed, aiming it at the walls.
"Think of it," Mr. Paolini said. "You can play games on the ceiling."
2.4.1.4 Prototype 3D holographic video calls
Researchers in Japan are showing off a technology called the SeeLinder that let’s you
make 3D holographic video calls.
SeeLinder uses a 360-degree digital camera and cylindrical tube to create a real-time
3-dimensional hologram that shows the person you’re talking to from almost any angle.
By comparison, most 3D displays have a sweet spot that only gives the full 3D effect
when looking at the screen from a specific point.
Although these screens are still at the prototype stage, we think that any technology that
allows 3D objects to be seen from any angle will find its way to museums. Compared to
the other 3D screen technologies that are described in this chapter, these images can be
seen by a large audience, not just one person at the time, and do not require the user to
wear special goggles.
From www.endgadget.com
2.4.1.5 Everywhere Displays
The Everywhere Displays project by IBM aims to develop a system that allows the
transformation of every surface in a space into a projected "touch screen".
The prototype combines an LCD projector, a pan/tilt
mirror and a camera. The mirror is used to deflect the
image of the projector to any surface – walls, a table or
the floor of a room. The projected image is processed
to compensate for the perspective distortion.
A pan/tilt video camera detects hand/body activity on
the projected area, so the user can interact with the
projected image by simply touching the surface,
resulting in a touch screen on virtually any surface.
IBM list a number of possible uses for their Everywhere
Display, such as a general display where the projector
is used to create a display on any surface, or an interactive whiteboard, projecting an
image on a wall for group viewing. According to IBM, their system could also be used for
notification, showing location specific information, signaling and as a deviceless remote
control.
They list their potential users as offices, education and retail. The Cultural Heritage
domain could be added to that too.
We could think of a lot of interactive museum applications that would take advantage of
the possibilities that are offered here.
http://www.research.ibm.com/ed/index.htm
2.4.1.6 GPS-Ready Digital Camera
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050119/nyw185_1.html
The Ricoh Corporation introduced the Pro G3, a high-resolution digital camera that
embeds captured images with GPS coordinate information received from either its onboard GPS unit or from external GPS devices.
Once these captured 'geo-images' are transferred to a PC, they are automatically
converted to shape files or merged to geo-databases for instant integration into
Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Points representing each image's position may
be hovered over to display a thumbnail, or clicked on to access the full-size image.
In addition to storing GPS data in the image, the camera also utilizes a user-configurable
data dictionary for tagging pictures with workflow-related information. These attributes
are easily accessible from the GIS layer table for automated database integration.
Archeologists in Maine use these cameras to scout out archaeological sites; Universities,
National Park personnel, farmers, and even museums are finding that their GIS
workflows have been optimized since adopting the camera.
2.4.1.7 Taking photos from a kite
Here is a cheap and easy way to take aerial photos of an archaeological site or
monument: modify a digital camera and fly it up a kite to take photos. The results look
pretty good and you can do this with just about any digital camera.
Click http://digitalcameras.engadget.com/entry/1757766119821744/ to read more.
2.4.1.8 Electronic paper
Digital or electronic paper has for a long time now been described as the best way to
visualize digital information with the ease of use and functionality of paper, but it took
almost 30 years to develop the technology into usable paper like devices.
Electronic reusable paper is a display material that has many of the properties of paper.
It stores an image, can be viewed in direct sunlight, has a wide viewing angle, is flexible,
and is relatively inexpensive, but, unlike conventional paper, it is electrically writeable
and erasable.
Although projected to cost somewhat more than a normal piece of paper, a sheet of
electronic reusable paper could be re-used 1000s of times. This material has many
potential applications in the field of information display including digital books, low-power
portable displays, wall-sized displays, and fold-up displays.
2 Companies – E-ink and Gyricon – develop and market products. Both use a different
technological approach and their products have different applications: E-ink as electronic
books and Gyricon as pricing and promotional display in retail environments.
Electronic books by Philips and Sony using technology by E-ink
Advantages of electronic paper over more conventional electronic display systems such
as TFT screens include light weight and high contrast, with text and images that can be
viewed in strong or dim light, and low power consumption (there is no need for external
power to maintain an image). These screens are thus extremely well adapted to outdoor
use.
Sheets of electronic paper are light and flexible and could easily be carried around during
a museum tour or the visit of a historical monument.
These screens could be integrated into PDA-like devices, making these ideal for portable
cultural heritage presentation systems. They could include the same technological addons such as GPS and W-lan, so that text information and images could be updated
constantly, according to the location of the user.
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?article_id=218392010&language=englis
h
http://www.eink.com/news/releases/pr70.html on electronic reading devices
2.4.2 Touch
Touch deals with human interfaces, haptics and sensors
2.4.2.1 Touchscreens
There are currently 5 touchscreens technologies, based on different types of sensors.
1. Capacitive: A tiny current is fed in to a conductive coating within a glass sandwich
from busbars at the edge of the glass. The current leaks to the ground through the
finger and electronics determine the x-y position in relation to each of the busbars.
2. Resistive: a flexible layer with conductive coating on one side is brought into contact
with a rigid layer to form a circuit with a varying resistance. An x-y position is
measured by volt drop from each of 4 busbars at the edge. This is the type of screen
used in PDA’s.
3. Projected Capacitive: almost-invisible wires laminated in a tough glass substrate
project an electrical field on the surface of the glass layer. A finger touching the front
surface affects the field. The decoder calculates the X-Y co-ordinates from this and
relays commands to the host system.
4. Surface-Acoustic Wave: exciters around the edge of a layer of glass set up vibrations
on its surface. Touching the glass causes a shadow which is detected by receivers
also around the edge. SAW can also detect pressure giving a z-axis reading.
5. Infrared: this is one of the oldest techniques to build a touchscreen. It works with a
matrix of LED’s and diodes that are placed in front of the screen.
Each system has it advantages and disadvantages, and therefore most appropriate use.
The type of touchscreen is thus very dependent on the application, environment and
budget.
See also http://www.tridentdisplays.nl/about.html
2.4.2.2 Zytronic http://www.zytronic.co.uk/touchscreens_zytouch.htm
Zytronic, a company in the UK, manufactures large format touchscreens for TFT and
Plasma monitors. These work on the projected capacitive principle. The glass can be up
to 25mm thick and since the sensing components are well away from the touch surface
the system is extremely rugged.
2.4.2.3 Everywhere displays http://www.research.ibm.com/ed
The Everywhere Displays project from IBM Research aims to develop systems that allow
the transformation of every surface in a space into a projected “touch screen”.
The interactive component works with image recognition. A camera follows the position
of the hand and finger and can recognize a ‘mouse click’.
2.4.2.4 Haptic devices
An EPOCH showcase researched the devices that could successfully be used to interact
with the virtual 3D replica of a historical artefact. A number of them were tried, and one
was selected for its ease of use and ‘intergrability’.
Besides their technical differences, the haptic devices are defined by their degrees of
freedom.
6 Degrees Of Freedom or DOF means 3 rotational axes + up/down, left/right and
forward/back.
For our showcase, we were looking for a simple physical interface between the user and
a multimedia presentation that would be easy to integrate, robust and simple to use.
It could best be compared to a ‘spaceball’ or a base less joystick, and give 3 DOF, as we
were only interested in being able to rotate the model.
These are the ones we looked at:
3D Mouse
A 3D Mouse such as a ‘Wanda’ is a
navigation device with a joystick
and 3 programmable buttons. They
can be used to manipulate 3D
objects in a virtual environment
With an embedded 6 DOF sensor, it
can be used in free space, unlike a
typical mouse or joystick.
Joysticks
A joystickis a 3 DOF device that
works with the tilting motion of the
hand. It is used in gaming as well
as in the industry or in medical
applications.
This ‘CyberStick’ is a base-free
joystick designed specially for
Virtual Reality.
Haptic or data gloves are gloves
equipped with sensors that sense
the movements of the hand and
interface those with a computer.
They can also feature small
vibrotactile stimulators on each
finger and the palm of the hand.
The array of stimulators can
generate simple sensations such as
pulses or sustained vibration, and
they can be used in combination to
produce complex tactile feedback
patterns.
Force feedback gloves are
lightweight, force-reflecting
exoskeletons that fit over data
gloves and add resistive force
feedback to each finger.
With the force feedback system,
users are able to explore the
physical properties of the
computer-generated 3D object they
manipulate and literally “feel” the
object.
They also allow the operator to
control a remotely-located robotic
“hand”.
The grasp forces are exerted via
tendons that are routed to the
fingertips via the exoskeleton. They
can be programmed to prevent the
user’s fingers from penetrating or
crushing a virtual object.
Force feedback gloves are however
very expensive at about 35.000€
Mechanical Tracking Devices
measure position and orientation by
using a direct mechanical
connection between a reference
point and the target. Typically, a
light-weight arm connects to a
control box, and encoders placed at
the joints of the arm measure the
change in position and orientation
with respect to the reference point.
Optical tracking devices or wands
come in all shapes and variations.
Most incorporate on-off buttons to
control variables in a simulation or
in the display of data. Others have
knobs, dials, or joy sticks.
Their design and manner of
response are tailored to the
application. For example, biologists
sometimes use wands like scalpels
to slice tissue samples from virtual
brains.
The object to be tracked is
equipped with retro reflective
markers. Tracking cameras
recognize these markers. The data
from these cameras is then
processed, the result is the
coordinates of the markers, and
hence the position of the body
carrying the markers.
Most wands operate with six
degrees of freedom.
Spaceball
A spaceball is a 6 DOF motion
controller that can zoom, pan and
rotate models. It feels very much
like holding the model in your
hand. The controller has sensors
built in that feel the movement and
the amount of pressure applied
controls the speed.
Motion sensor
A motion sensor is a 3 DOF
sourceless tracking device.
It provides a full 360º range and
has no line-of-sight restrictions.
It gives 3 rotation axes, i.e. angular
coordinates.
The device connects to a Windows
PC via the USB port.
Windows control and connectivity
software provides sensor
configuration, network interface
and joystick emulation.
Motion prediction, adjustable
rotational sensitivity and control of
output data filtering allows fine
tuning for our specific application.
This is the device that was used for
the showcase
2.4.2.5 Responsive handheld object
http://www.otheredge.com.au/objects/index.html
Moments of Grey is the outcome of a speculative project that researched and developed
prototype responsive objects which attempt to evoke what might be found near the sea.
As children most people have listened to the sea in a shell on the beach. This project is
exploring this type of experience with an object on found a beach, to create an almost
magical object that is made alive by technology.
Each object contains a basic single chip computer, sound chips, leds, light sensors and an
accelerometer and is made of polyester resin, foam and other material.
In a gallery the work is placed on the floor on a circle of foam; the user picks the objects
up, touches and plays with them, rolls them around in their hands and strokes them, like
they would stroke a found object on the beach. The objects respond by glowing and
playing sounds of water and the beach environment.
Although both the aim and the outcome of this project are different, this responsive
object can somehow be compared to the result of the EPOCH showcase Multimodal
Interface for Safe Presentation of Valuable Objects.
Both strive to show the symbolic information hidden within the object.
2.4.2.6 Anywhere interactive interface
A Paris-based company called Sensitive Object http://www.sensitive-object.com/
developed a technology that turns any rigid surface or object into a keyboard or an
interactive interface. Using a single inexpensive sensor, it detects finger taps on a shop
window or a blackboard and can calculate the exact position of the tap, translating those
into mouse clicks or keystrokes.
The system can work with a surface as large as four square meters, and the number of
“keys” can reach 544.
It allows for a wide range of interactive applications such as shop windows, public places,
education, leisure and arts.
The technology has already been tested in a Paris shop selling lamps where 8 tactile
buttons, indicated as small white circles, were pasted on the interior of the window shop.
Passer-bys can, with a simple touch, activate the different lamps.
If it works as well as advertised, this interfacing mode could be easily transferred to
museums in the shape of interactive display cases – supposing the staff can stand the
noise of fingers tapping the glass.
Via near near future http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/
2.4.2.7 Virtual Keyboard
A virtual keyboard projects a full-size virtual keyboard onto any surface.
The Virtual Keyboard uses laser light to project a full-sized computer keyboard onto
almost any surface.
The virtual keyboard behaves exactly like a real one. An infrared based optical
recognition system calculates which of the keys the finger taps.
The system is very easy to use and is accurate as long as the fingers are held 2 mm
above the surface between key presses.
Although there is no tactile feedback, audible key clicks can be turned on in the software.
The virtual keyboard connects to compatible PDAs, Smartphones, laptops or PCs via
Bluetooth and provides a practical way to do email, word processing and spreadsheet
tasks. The receiver is approximately the size of a cigarette lighter and has a rechargeable
battery.
This virtual keyboard technology would make a good tamper and vandal proof interface
for museums or on site presentation systems if integrated into the console, in places
where the ambient light is not too strong.
2.4.3 Hearing
Hearing lists techniques to produce sound, vibration or speech.
2.4.3.1 Parametric loudspeakers
http://www.atcsd.com/
http://www.holosonics.com/
Introduction
Parametric Loudspeakers provide the ability to direct music or voice from an audio source
into a tight beam, much as a lightbeam from a flashlight.
Only those within the virtual column of sound can hear the sound – outside the beam the
sound is virtually inaudible.
The parametric loudspeaker is a new technology for to the reproduction of sound. It is
very different from the conventional ‘omnidirectional’ loudspeaker, and offer significant
potential for CH application.
What it does
The sound generated by a parametric loudspeaker can only be heard when standing
directly in line with the speaker or after it has reflected off a hard surface.
For example, if the ultrasonic emitter is pointed toward a wall, the audible sound will only
be heard after it has reflected off the wall, and will seem to come from that wall.
This is similar to shining a flashlight at a wall in a dark room.
For stereo, a separate ultrasonic emitter is required for each channel of audio, one for
the left channel and one for the right.
How it works
Parametric loudspeakers use a beam of ultrasound to carry the audible sound waves.
The directivity or narrowness of any source producing sound waves depends on the size
of the source, compared to the wavelengths it generates. Audible sound has wavelengths
ranging from a few cm to several meters, and because these wavelengths are
comparable to the size of most loudspeakers, sound propagates omnidirectionally. A
narrow beam can only be created by having a sound source that is much larger than the
wavelengths it's producing.
Clearly, having a loudspeaker twenty meters wide is not very useful.
Ultrasound on the other hand, whose wavelengths are only a few millimeters long, are
much smaller than the source, and consequently travel in an extremely narrow beam.
Of course, ultrasound, which contains frequencies far outside the range of hearing, is
completely inaudible. But as the ultrasonic beam travels through the air, the inherent
properties of the air causes the ultrasound to distort (change shape) in a predictable
way. This distortion gives rise to frequency components in the audible bandwidth, which
can be accurately predicted, and therefore precisely controlled.
By generating the correct ultrasonic signal, essentially any sound desired can be created
within the air itself.
Note that the source of the sound is not the physical device, but the invisible beam of
ultrasound which can be many meters long.
Components
Currently, 2 companies manufacture loudspeakers using this technology, both in the US:
Holosonic Research Labs, Inc., of Watertown, Massachusetts, who calls it the Audio
SpotLight, and American Technology Corporation from San Diego in California, who
named it Hyper SonicSound. This last product is also distributed under license by RSF in
France and by Sennheiser in Germany.
The complete sound system consists of the following components:
• an audio source, such as a CD player, a PC or a microphone,
• a signal processor
• an ultrasonic amplifier
• an ultrasonic emitter or transducer
Depending on the manufacturer, the ultrasonic amplifier/signal processor will either be
separate or integrated within the transducer.
The audio source is converted to a complex ultrasonic signal by the signal processor
before being amplified and emitted into the air by the transducer.
A single transducer with its own signal processor and amplifier costs between 1500 and
2500€ (in august 2004). As with any new technology, prices are expected to drop in the
near future.
There are of course some limitations to this technology. High frequencies are better
transmitted than low frequencies. This means that speech works very well but (modern)
music less.
The beam is relatively narrow (about 1m in diameter), so large groups can not be
addressed, but then conventional speakers are probably more appropriate.
One real drawback is that in order to carry an audible soundwave, the ultrasound has to
be about 20% louder than the audiotrack. When used for a long time, the ultrasound
speakers might thus cause headaches.
What is the potential for CH
This technology could easily be applied to the CH domain.
The most obvious use is to provide audio commentary near an exhibit, without spreading
sound to others visitors nearby, without headphones and much more effectively than
obtrusive 'speaker domes'.
The narration about a specific display can be directed only to the people standing directly
in front of it. The audio could also be projected in different languages, from a single
central device.
Part of this information was compiled form the websites of Audio Spotlight
http://www.holosonics.com and American Technology Corporation http://www.atcsd.com
2.4.3.2 TEXT TO SPEECH
Text-to-speech (TTS) is the generation of synthesized speech from text. The goal is to
make synthesized speech as intelligible, natural and pleasant to listen to as human
speech and have it communicate just as meaningfully.
TTS can also be combined with avatars, a technology that is demonstrated in one of the
EPOCH showcases: Avatar Based Interactive Storytelling.
Software such as Oddcast’s VHost SitePal™ allows the user to create speaking animated
characters (avatars) for a web site, and add an audio message via Text-to-Speech or
voice recording. http://www.oddcast.com/sitepal/
2.4.4 Play
Play is about games technology, interaction, etc. Articles on artificial intelligence, TTS will
find a place here.
2.4.4.1 Avatars
A couple of Text-to-Speech-to-Avatar applications have appeared on the web at
http://www.pulse3d.com/pulse/ and http://www.oddcast.com/sitepal/
Both let one use either a recorded voice or use the sites own TTS application and allow
the user to choose a character as the avatar. The Pulse3D application even lets him
animate his own 2D image – a picture form a person and even an animal, object or
drawing – into a talking avatar.
Demo’s can be made on both websites.
These are the best avatar applications we have seen so far, and offer great potential for
interactive websites and kiosk applications.
What differentiates these web applications from the avatars we have seen at conferences
this year, namely ICHIM and CAA, is how easy it is to build characters and input speech.
They make the animation of virtual characters accessible to everyone, and require no IT
knowledge whatsoever.
Although these all-in-one solutions are not built for the CH domain, they could very easily
be adapted (if necessary) to be used in for example site presentation systems. Using
artificial intelligence, they would even allow a good degree of interaction with the visitor,
who could ask questions to a virtual guide and get spoken answers.
2.4.4.2 Portable Media Centers
A Portable Media Center is a universal media player based on Microsoft’s Windows
Mobile, that let the user take all digital video, music and photos from his PC wherever he
goes.
These devices play video, music and pictures
transferred from a computer or downloaded from
the internet, including Windows Media Video,
Windows Media Audio, Windows Media Image,
MP3, JPEG and TIFF files.
In comparison, MP3 players only play music.
Because Portable Media Centers will use smart
synch technology that is available in Windows
Media Player, the user will be able to transfer the
content of the Windows Media Player media library to the device. This includes music
copied from a CD, pictures from a digital camera, home movies from a digital video
camera, TV shows recorded using a Media Center PC or other personal video recorder
applications and videos downloaded from the Internet. In addition, Portable Media
Centers will play downloaded digital music and video, including over 500,000 WMA tracks
from leading music services including Napster, Best Buy, Buy Music, Music Now and
many more, and movies from content providers such as CinemaNow.
The entertainment will be easily and automatically transferred to the Portable Media
Center using smart sync technology delivered in a future release of Windows Media
Player. Smart sync technology will enable automatic, intelligent synchronization of music
with next generation portable music players as well as synchronization of music, photo,
TV content, and movies with Portable Media Centers.
Portable Media Centers will be available for purchase in the second half of 2004.
Microsoft is working with leading consumer electronics manufacturers to revolutionize the
way people experience personal entertainment on the go. Creative Labs, iRiver,
Samsung, Sanyo and ViewSonic have all announced that they will be making Portable
Media Centers.
Portable Media Centers will work with any version of Windows XP, including Windows XP
Home Edition, Windows XP Professional Edition and Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.
Portable Media Centers will also work with Windows XP Media Center Edition, allowing the
user to take all of the recorded television shows recorded on a Media Center PC to enjoy
anywhere.
Hardware partners are developing Portable Media Centers with storage capacity ranging
from 20GB to 40GB depending on the manufacturer and model. A 40GB hard drive can
hold up to 175 hours of video, over 600 hours of music or 100,000 pictures with all disk
drive space dedicated to either video, audio, or pictures.
At the time of writing, a portable media center is expected to cost between 500 and 700
USD
2.4.4.3 Tablet PC thin client
A company called Motion Computing has converted their standard Tablet PC into a thin
client device.
A thin client is a PC without a harddisk: all the information is kept on a central server,
accessed through a wireless network. The PC has been developed in collaboration with
the healthcare, retail and manufacturing customers of the manufacturer.
The standard tablet PC’s hard drive is replaced by a 512 MB flash storage device that
only contains the Windows XP Embedded OS and a limited number of essential
applications. The system also has a 12.1-inch XGA TFT LCD screen.
Large screen Tablet PC’s are starting to appear in some museum exhibitions and site visit
presentation systems. They offer a larger screen and wider viewing angle compared to
hand held PC’s (palms), allowing for an easier collaborative group visit. They are also
very well suited for guides in museums who can easily show images and animations, or
zoom into details, to a large audience. Tablet PCs would effectively replace the paper
photographs and drawings guides often carry around, and give them innovative ways to
interact with the visitor.
The advantage of thin client computing, with application and data on a central server, is
centrally managed administration, high system reliability, data security and networked
data access.
These PCs retails for approximately 1700 USD.
http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS9842100574.html
2.4.5 Personalisation
Personalisation deals with access control, identification, localisation – and thus WIFI,
RFID, GPS etc.
2.4.5.1 RFID
Radio frequency identification, or RFID, is a generic term for technologies that use radio
waves to automatically identify people or objects. There are several methods of
identification, but the most common is to store a serial number that identifies a person or
object, and perhaps other information, on an RFID tag.
The reader converts the radio waves reflected back from the RFID tag into digital
information that can then be passed onto computers that can make use of it.
An RFID system consists of a tag, which is
made up of a microchip with an antenna,
and a reader with an antenna. The reader
sends out electromagnetic waves. The tag
antenna is tuned to receive these waves.
A passive RFID tag draws power from field
created by the reader and uses it to power
the microchip’s circuits. The chip then
modulates the waves that the tag sends
back to the reader and the reader converts the new waves into digital data. An active
RFID tag has a battery, which is used to run the microchip’s circuitry and to actively
broadcast a signal to a reader.
Active tags have a long range of typically 30m, where passive tags have a short read
range of less than 6m. These are on the other hand far less expensive than active tags
and can be disposed of with the product packaging.
A lack of standards and cost has so far prevented RFID to be more widely accepted.
Tags themselves are not very expensive at about 0,5€/pc, but for the retail market this
makes them impractical for identifying millions of items that cost only a few Euro.
Readers cost 500€ and more.
International standards have been adopted for some very specific applications, such as
tracking animals. Many other standards initiatives are under way.
RFID’s are currently used mainly for tracking goods in the
supply chain, in retail, by laundry rentals and in libraries.
RFID is also used for security and payment systems.
See www.rfidjournal.com
There are different workgroups, mainly focussing on retail
applications. None, as far as we know, revolve around CH.
http://www.rfidnederland.nl
http://www.vil.be/nl/
In libraries RFID is used primarily to automate the book handling process including
checkout, inventory maintenance, and check-in. When combined with automatic or
Computer Assisted sorting equipment, RFID facilitates and speeds up book sorting.
RFID tags replace both the bar code and EAS (anti-theft) device, allowing for much faster
conversion of library materials in new branches. In existing libraries, RFID tags can coexist with existing EM anti-theft systems.
Check-out
stations
can
be
automated
with
easy,
intuitive
interfaces
Book returns can be automated with check-in, EAS activation, and systems updates
completed simultaneously a the book return chute.
Fast on-the-shelf inventory allows for much better accuracy in collection management
and increased book turns resulting in reduced book purchasing. This allows libraries to
expand their collections without increasing their budgets.
Source: Tagsys http://www.tagsys.net/
In museums and archaeological sites, RFID has promising uses.
One is collection management.
Usual collection management methods have many risky moments. When an object needs
to be identified, it has to be touched, lifted or tilted. This handling is not only very time
consuming, it can also damage the artwork. Putting RFID tags on the items in a museum
removes this risk by taking away the need to physically touch the object.
There are other advantages to this system as well, which include: simplification of
registration checks; integration in disaster planning; the possibility to store information
in the tag and the combination with public information systems.
Another promising application for RFID is visitor identification & profile definition, and
RFID triggering of multimedia kiosks, taking into account the said visitor profile. The
content of site presentation systems can automatically be configured according to the
language, age or personal interest of the visitor. Also, his behaviour can be monitored –
the time spent reading the contents, the information he missed out – so the visit can be
optimised, thus improving client satisfaction.
One example will be showcased in Work Package 2.4: Cultural Routes.
A current application combining RFID and W-LAN is shown in the Natural History
museum of Aarhus. The exhibition was visited on 20 October 2004
2.4.5.2 RFID and W-LAN
TAGGED X
Naturhistorisk Museum in Århus http://www.naturhistoriskmuseum.dk/
Jan Bender
Lau Rasmussen
Peter Lautrup
Cordura A/S
Henrik Sell
Museum inspector of the museum of Natural History
The Naturhistorisk Museum in Århus is one of the 4 Natural History museums in
Denmark, and is located in the city of Aarhus, in the Danish region of Jutland. It receives
80.000 visitors a year.
The TaggedX system is a joint development between the museum, a private company
called Cordura and Innovation Lab – an IT think-tank organized by the county of Aarhus,
the city of Aarhus and TDC, the biggest telephone operator in Denmark, which promotes
and sponsors innovative projects.
TaggedX was used for the first time during the last six months of
an exhibition on birds, which ended in august 2004. This was
used as a proof of concept.
Now on its second implementation, TaggedX became an integral
part of a temporary exhibition called Livsformer (live forms). It is
to be used for the whole duration of the exhibition, which opened
in September 2004 and will last until February 2006.
The exhibition deals with the evolution of living animals and
plants and is mainly targeted at children aged 10 to 12.
TaggedX is a PDA (personal digital assistant) based information system that uses a
combination of Wi-Fi and RFID to offer location based content. The information is
delivered to the visitor when and where it is needed.
The visitors (usually classes divided into groups of 3) receive a PDA when they enter the
museum. 8 Are currently available.
The first they have to do is enter their e-mail address into the server; this is then linked
to the n° of their PDA. The login and password they will receive by e-mail will later allow
them to log into the museum webserver and access a personal web page containing post
visit information. It provides, besides the same information that they saw in the
museum, extra information about the items that were studied. The personal page
remains active for a period of 3 weeks after the visit.
RFID tags are mounted behind the information panels; their position is shown by
coloured dots (note that it was the exhibition designer who did not want the tag to be
better identified).
These are short range tags costing about 2€ a piece. The 150€ RFID reader is slotted into
the CompacFlash slot of a Siemens PDA of about 500€. It has a reach of approximately 5
cm, so in practice has to almost touch the text panel in order to identify the tag.
This proximity offers the benefit to allow tags to be placed near each other. It also
positions the user precisely inside the exhibition room.
The data is wirelessly transmitted in real time to the Wi-Fi enabled PDA. Although not
strictly necessary – all the data could be kept on a CF card in the PDA – this system
allows:
•
•
•
all the data to be kept in one central database on the museum server. Only one
system needs to be updated.
visit information to be wired directly to the personal webpage of the user. He is thus
able to retrace his whole visit and access all the data from home or the classroom.
general statistical information to be gathered easily. This could be a record of all the
tagged items the user has seen, the number of correct answers etc. This could be
used by the museum to improve the lay out of the exhibition if important parts are
overlooked, or modify the questions.
Note that all this could also be achieved when docking the PDA’s to recharge the
batteries after use.
At the entrance of the exhibition a choice of operation mode has to be made: game,
encyclopaedia or English.
•
•
•
The ’English’ mode shows the translation of each text panel – which are in Danish –
on the PDA. This way, the look of the panels is not cluttered by too much text and the
typeface can be bigger.
Encyclopaedia mode shows extra information on a given subject, together with
animations or short movies.
In game mode, questions have to be answered based on hints given by the PDA –
such as ’find an insect that has mimicked the colour of another one to protect itself’.
When the right answer is found, extra contents such as film fragments are shown on
the PDA screen.
The PDA’s are given back upon leaving the exhibition hall.
Currently, the use of the PDA’s is not charged extra. The reason is that the application is
not yet completely reliable – the server needs to be rebooted a couple of times a day –
meaning the application is off line for about 10 minutes. The museum conservator has
not yet decided whether the PDA application will be charged in the future, or be
considered free added value to the visit.
In all, TaggedX is a relatively inexpensive technology that adds an element of
edutainment into the visit of the Natural History museum. It is well received by the
visitor and the feedback is positive.
The biggest cost was the creation of the database content, which was done by museum
staff. Note that their work is not yet finished, and that more information will be added to
the database over time.
2.4.5.3 The MagiCook Kitchen
The MagiCook Kitchen from Little Tikes (http://www.littletikes.com/toys/) is a toy kitchen
where all the fake food comes embedded with Radio Frequency ID tags. Swipe a plastic
waffle over the built-in reader in the fake stovetop and you’ll hear a variety food and
cooking-related phrases.
RFID's are primarily designed to identify goods in
retail applications or people in security systems. This
must be the first time they are integrated into a toy.
One could imagine educational games for museums
based on the same technology, such as children
discovering the relation between different objects,
pictures or paintings, or interactive applications linking
artefacts with stories or sound.
2.4.5.4 Visitor Identification
Theme park takes visitors to RFID-land
By Alorie Gilbert CNET News.com September
URL: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584-5366509.html
14,
2004,
3:24
PM
PT
A Florida theme park is helping parents keep track of their kids by giving them
wristbands embedded with high-tech radio signal technology.
Wannado City issues the radio frequency identification (RFID) wristbands to all visitors as
part of general admission to the park, according to a release from Texas Instruments,
the maker of the wristbands. The theme park opened last month in the Fort Lauderdale
area.
The wristbands contain special microchips, or RFID tags, that wirelessly signal their
whereabouts to reading devices throughout the 140,000-square-foot facility. Visitors can
locate other members of their group by using touch-screen kiosks throughout the park
that are linked to the system, called SafeTzone's Real-Time Locating System.
People have used RFID technology for years to track and identify livestock and lost pets.
More recently, it has been put to use to monitor humans, and hospitals and prisons have
begun to use RFID wristbands to keep tabs on patients and inmates.
One company, called Applied Digital Solutions, is even experimenting with injecting RFID
chips into people's arms. Mexico's attorney general grabbed the headlines last month
when the Mexican government announced he'd been injected with the company's chip to
give him access to high-security facilities. The country is also studying the technology as
a tool for combating kidnappings.
Businesses are finding new uses for RFID technology too. Wal-Mart Stores, Albertsons
and dozens of other major retail chains and consumer goods manufactuers are slapping
RFID tags onto merchandise with the hope that the technology will help them juggle
inventory efficiently. Pharmaceutial makers are examining RFID systems as an antidote
to the counterfeit drug trade.
Texas Instruments said it and its partner RF Code have installed the SafeTzone's RealTime Locating System tracking technology at Paramount's Great America in Santa Clara,
Calif., Wild Rivers Water Park in Irvine, Calif., Dollywood's Splash Country in Pigeon
Forge, Tenn., and Wet 'n Wild in Las Vegas.
LegoLand in Denmark is using similar technology to reunite kids separated from parents
at its amusement park.
2.4.5.5 Bicycle mobile phone
According to Siemens, this rugged 'outdoor' mobile phone is designed for people with an
‘active lifestyle’. With their optional Bike-o-Meter, the handset can be mounted on a
bikecycle's handlebar.
It then displays not only standard cyclometer functions information such as speed and
distance, but also gives the user the option to record own tours on the move or to follow
predefined trips that are indicated on the phone’s display.
The phone also has a built-in VGA camera for digital imaging and video recording on the
go.
With the right content, a phone like this looks like an interesting interface for outdoor
visits to monuments or 'cultural routes'. As with any portable device used in CH however,
any system integrator will have to take into account the cost of the equipment and the
renting and collecting of the phones. It might be easier (and cheaper) to divise systems
that use the portable devices the visitors already posess, such as their own mobile
phones.
http://communications.siemens.com
2.4.5.6 Mobile access
Access to cultural heritage information through mobile phones has good potential.
Everyone has one and knows how to use at least the basic functions.
One interesting project was at the Thorvaldsens Museum in Denmark, visited by us in
Copenhagen on 21 October 2004
Mobile Phone Guided Tour SKULPTUREN KALDER!
Thorvaldsen Museum www.thorvaldsenmuseum.dk
Babak Djarahi, Sales Manager Cellpoint AB Denmark www.cellpoint.com
Marie Ørstedholm, information manager Thorvaldsens Museum.
The Golden Days in Copenhagen http://www.goldendays.dk is a major cultural heritage
festival launched by the Copenhagen museums.
The aim is to promote the awareness of Copenhagen as a classical city of culture. The
festival is a biennale facilitating the marketing of the permanent historical collections and
traditional events the capital has to offer.
Golden Days in Copenhagen is sponsored by the Municipality of Copenhagen and the
Danish Ministry of Culture.
Golden Days in Copenhagen took place in 2004 for the sixth time between 3 and 26
September 2004 under the title "The Age of Dreams - Copenhagen of the 1890s".
The Thorvaldens museum is entirely dedicated to Bertel Thorvaldsen, one of the great
Danish sculptors. Born in Copenhagen on 19 November 1770, he spent 40 years of his
working life in Rome. He died in Copenhagen on 24 March 1844.
Within the scope of Golden Days in Copenhagen, the Thorvaldsens Museum organized
Skupturen Kalder!
The objective of this project was to make the inhabitants of Copenhagen better aware of
the sculptures made in the last half of the 19th century, after Thorvaldsen’s death, that
exist in their city.
The project was an idea of Pernille Damsted Fonnesberg, an art student working for the
museum, and Ernst Jonas Bencard. Cellpoint, a Swedish company with an office in
Copenhagen, made the application possible.
Visitors of the exhibition received a map of Copenhagen, showing the location of 15
artworks in different locations in the city of Copenhagen.
They could then dial a number with their personal mobile phones and type the number of
the sculpture in front. They could then listen to the voice recording of a well known
person – an artist, art critic, writer etc who would comment the work and give his or hers
personal point of view.
In all, Cellpoint registered 1245 calls and a total of about 99592 seconds. This means
that every call lasted about 1 min and 20 second.
Taking into account the date of the event – the middle of September – the language
(Danish only) and the fact that very little promotion was made for the event, the
organizers of this project are very satisfied with these results.
At the moment, Cellpoint is discussing further projects with the Golden Days organization
about a similar system for the Hans Christian Andersen anniversary festivities in 2005
2.4.5.7 Portable geek gym
Philip Torrone from Seattle built himself what he calls a portable geek gym.
The portable geek gym consists of a pair of
sunglasses with a half-inch square LCD screen
incorporated into the right lens, a Pocket PC with
video output, a Spot Watch that can receive and
display news from the Web, headphones and a
GPS unit.
Also attached are a heart rate monitor and a
pedometer that can be attached to a running
shoe, all fed to a health watch via radio
frequency. His phone, which is used to check
email via bluetooth and feeds to the glasses, is
optional.
The system plays audio and video clips based on his location, or shows GPS maps.
He also made a setup where certain types of music are played depending on the area he
is in.
A future version might even support weather data.
So what is the link with Cultural Heritage?
The setup that has been developed here could – at least technically – relatively easily be
modified as a museum, site or monument heritage presentation system: content is sent
to the sunglasses and the earphones when the visitor has reached a particular location.
In this illustrated case the content is music or e-mails. But it could just as easily be
narration and video or historical information about a historic town, landmarks or an open
air archeological site, automatically shown to the wearer when reaching an exact spot.
The nice thing about this location aware multimedia system is that Torrone only used
hardware that is available off-the-shelf and made to work together with a lot of custom
programming. This surely is a perfect example of integrating activities.
http://www.wired.com/news/gizmos/0,1452,62071,00.html
2.4.5.8 Tracking visits
With a portable location based information system – a GPS enabled PDA for example the route a visitors follows, his pace, the duration of the visit, stops etc can be recorded
by the device. This visitor data can later be downloaded into a PC as a ‘logbook’.
The xml file generated from most portable GPS systems can be imported into a PC and
the route overlaid on top of satellite maps.
The image of the visit of a town or open air archaeological site could for instance be used
to optimize the tour, or be given to the visitor as a ‘digital souvenir’.
2.4.5.9 Bluetooth wireless headphones
Bluetooth headphones function as full stereo headphones for any Bluetooth enabled
laptop, handheld PDA, or MP3 player, and can also work with a cell phone as a wireless
headset. They connect to those devices either natively or via a Bluetooth dongle. When
working with a PC or PDA, they can be used for VOIP or any sort of voice chat.
Their action range is between 5 and 10 m. Their audio quality is better than that of
Bluetooth headsets for mobile telephones, and work on both (stereo) channels. They are
based on a new standard called Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP).
As with other Bluetooth devices, four-digit passwords could theoretically be established
to secure the connection between the devices and the headset, adding the possibility to
pair different headsets with for instance one PDA.
These PAN or Personal Area Networks are absolutely ideal in CH, because they allow a
selected group of people – a family, a guided tour group – to hear the same audio
stream, and even to talk to each other when the headset are also equipped with
microphones, creating scope for cooperative visits and games.
We truly believe PAN technologies need further investigation and possible development
for the CH domain
Up to date, only a couple of companies, such as Bluetake Techonology’s I-Phono,
manufacture them. http://www.bluetake.com/
Logitech is developing a set together with HP.
In the ideal future all portable audio players will have built-in Bluetooth transmitters so
that any Bluetooth headphone can be used with any audio player, just like wired
headphones.
Zeevo Inc., a manufacturer of single-chip Bluetooth communications solutions,
announced its third-generation, high performance Bluetooth microcontroller solution.
According to them, is the first in the world to permit the transmission of CD-quality
sound over wireless Bluetooth links.
The company’s ARM7-based Bluetooth controller and accompanying software forms a
complete, low-cost embedded design solution for quality audio over Bluetooth, as well as
for other performance-sensitive Bluetooth applications.
This means that Bluetooth – the wireless standard for connecting personal use devices
with their peripherals – can be applied to portable MP3 layers, MP3-capable cell phones
or PDAs, and even consumer stereo systems, to provide wireless connections to stereo
headphones, headsets, or speakers without any sacrifice in audio quality.
Due to technical limitations, previous implementations of Bluetooth – used primarily for
wireless keyboards, mice, or mono cell phone headsets – had not been able to attain CDquality level that consumers have come to expect with their wired audio appliances.
http://www.physorg.com/news468.html
We do not know whether these stereo headphones use the same chip as described
above, but Logitech www.logitech.com manufactures these Bluetooth stereo headphones
to use with HP’s iPAQ Pocket PCs.
You can listen to MP3s, videos, and any audio file at up to 10m from the iPAQ. Each
headphone charge provides up to 8 hours of listening.
2.4.5.10 Bluetooth-Enabled Outdoor Posters
British mobile marketing company Hypertag has enhanced its outdoor infrared
advertising posters with Bluetooth technology. According to the company, the new
version will allow posters to send data such as video, vouchers, business cards, ringtones
and games to the mobile phone or PDA of a person walking by.
The idea of beaming information via Bluetooth to a BT enabled device such as a PDA of a
mobile phone is now finding its first use in advertising, but this same technology could be
used to great advantage in museums and archaeological sites.
As the reach of Bluetooth is approximately relatively short at 10m, written explanation,
narration or images could be sent wirelessly to the mobile phones of visitors standing
near an object or monument.
From http://www.netimperative.com/2004/11/29/TfL_posters/view?searchterm=posters
2.4.5.11 Blogs
A weblog, or simply a blog, is a web application which contains periodic, reverse
chronologically ordered posts on a common webpage. Such a Web site would typically be
accessible to any Internet user.
Blogs run from individual diaries to arms of political campaigns, media programs and
corporations, and from one occasional author to having large communities of writers. The
totality of weblogs or blog-related webs is usually called the blogosphere.
The format of weblogs varies, from simple bullet lists of hyperlinks, to article summaries
with user-provided comments and ratings.
Individual weblog entries are almost always date and time-stamped, with the newest
post at the top of the page.
Because links are so important to weblogs, most blogs have a way of archiving older
entries and generating a static address for individual entries; this static link is referred to
as a permalink. The latest headlines, with hyperlinks and summaries, are offered in
weblogs in the RSS XML-format, to be read with a RSS feedreader.
A weblog is often run through a content management system or CMS.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog, itself a blog
2.4.5.12 Database Browsing
Smart search lets art fans browse from BBC New, 28 January 2005
If you don't know art but know what you
like, new search technology could prove a
useful gateway to painting.
ArtGarden, developed by BT's research unit, is
being tested by the Tate as a new way of
browsing its online collection of paintings.
Rather than search by the name of an artist or
painting, users are shown a selection of
pictures. Clicking on their favourite image will
change the gallery in front of them to a
selection of similar works.
Browsing
“It is much more akin to wandering through the gallery“
Jemima Rellie, Tate Online
The technology uses a system dubbed smart serendipity, which is a combination of
artificial intelligence and random selection.
It 'chooses' a selection of pictures, by scoring paintings based on a selection of keywords
associated with them.
So, for instance a Whistler painting of a bridge may have the obvious keywords such as
bridge and Whistler associated to it but will also widen the search net with terms such as
aesthetic movement, 19th century and water.
A variety of paintings will then be shown to the user, based partly on the keywords and
partly on luck.
"It is much more akin to wandering through the gallery," said Jemima Rellie, head of the
Tate's digital programme.
For Richard Tateson, who worked on the ArtGarden project, the need for a new way to
search grew out of personal frustration.
"I went to an online clothes store to find something to buy my wife for Christmas but I
didn't have a clue what I wanted," he said.
The text-based search was restricted to looking either by type of garment or designer,
neither of which he found helpful.
He ended up doing his present shopping on the high street instead.
Music and film searches
He thinks the dominance of text-based searching is not necessarily appealing to the
majority of online shoppers.
Similarly, with art, browsing is often more important than finding a particular object.
"You don't arrive at Tate Britain and tell people what you want to see. One of the skills of
showing off the collection is to introduce people to things they wouldn't have asked for,"
he said.
The Tate is committed to making its art more accessible and technology such as
ArtGarden can help with that, said Ms Rellie.
She hopes the technology can be incorporated on to the website in the near future.
BT research is looking at extending the technology to other searching, such as for music
and films.
2.4.5.13 Bluetooth Messages
Tate Britain Christmas Tree by Richard Wentworth (an artist commissioned by Tate
Britain) includes a Bluetooth antenna and receiver to which passers-by can leave 'gifts' in
the form of photos, movies, text messages, and anything else that can be transferred as
a
file.
On
Christmas
Day,
the
presents
will
be
'unwrapped'
at
www.untitledfolder.org/christmastree.
This might just be an art project, the idea to be able to leave messages about an artefact
or indeed the whole museum is appealing. It is sort of an electronic visitors' golden book.
http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/wireless/bluetooth/tate-britains-bluetooth-xmas-tree026931.php
2.4.5.14 Eternal Egypt
What it is
Eternal Egypt is a partnership between IBM and Cultnat to use innovative IBM
technologies and services to create an interactive, multimedia experience of Egyptian
cultural artefacts, places and history for a global audience.
How it works
Eternal Egypt is a relational database, in which all the data, images and multimedia files
are stored.
It’s a user friendly CMS system for the visitor and for those who have to input content in
the system.
The CMS has some specific properties which are interesting for utilization in cultural
heritage. Dates e.g. are automatically placed on a timeline. This timeline is interactive,
so by clicking on it, you have access to the information.
Relations between objects, places or persons are also visualized in an interactive ‘web’.
3D multimedia makes it possible to access places which are not accessible during a real
visit, and an interactive map makes it possible to discover the history of Egypt starting
from a particular place.
Eternal Egypt works with different output channels.
One channel is the website, www.eternalegypt.org, but PDAs, which can be used during a
visit at the Valley of the Kings, are also a channel. So instead of making a different
system for each output, the same information can be used in different ways.
Eternal Egypt contains a lot of automated processes. Pictures e.g. are automatically
rescaled (for the different output channels) and thanks to an embedded Text-to-Speech
engine, written text is converted into audio files.
On www.eternalegypt.org, you can store your visit and your favourite collection, which is
a personalized way of visiting the website.
3 Horizontal Integration Unit
The methodology proposed by EPOCH is to have information on new technologies – press
releases, technology reports and white papers – ‘pushed’ to us. In other words, EPOCH
partners, companies, research organizations and universities are expected to keep us
informed on the work and research they are doing. This way, we should not need to look
for the information ourselves.
Unfortunately, this has not often been the case.
We have to admit that we expected a more effective and spontaneous information push
from our EPOCH partners when the EPOCH website was activated after the VAST
conference.
Since that did not happen, we started a direct mailing campaign, with questionnaires
sent to all the members of the EPOCH network, inviting them to inform us about the
projects they were working on.
Response to that has not been an enormous success, but proved useful none the less.
Since with many projects it is not clear-cut whether the technology used has to be
considered new or already existing, the choice was made to incorporate all the results to
our mailing in the same database that was described extensively in WP 2.2. This
database, and the end result of the projects – many of them EU funded – will need
careful follow-up.
The same can be said about the private industry, be it from the ones we contacted or by
companies that could have known about the EPOCH project. Unless we directly asked
them for information, almost none kept us informed spontaneously or sent us leads
about technologies that would find relevance in CH.
Indeed, almost all the data that was gathered over the last year was found by ourselves
on the internet, in specialised literature or at tradeshows.
Reason for this lack of cooperation is twofold:
The Cultural Heritage domain, although extensive with thousands of museums, sites and
monuments, is often not recognized by the industry as a potential market for their
goods. Few products, let alone whole technologies, are developed specifically for use in
CH.
For the technologies that have been developed for other industries, but could be adapted
to CH, this domain is so unknown to the manufacturers, the sales process so different
from the private sector, that we are mostly overlooked. Furthermore, as museums are
often not well funded, this sector is maybe not considered to be the most ‘productive’
market.
Outside the network, the EPOCH project is as yet not very well known to the companies
or organisations that should provide us with info. Indeed, with almost all the contacts we
had with the industry, our first task was to explain what EPOCH was about, and what the
potential for the companies and the CH sector might be.
4 Future outlines
It has been our task over the past months, and will continue to be in the future, to
inform the private sector, research institutes and universities about our existence and
‘raison d’être’.
We do this by promoting EPOCH in general and a new EPOCH website in particular. In the
future, the Horizontal Integration website or Blog could be a good promotional
instrument, kept dynamic by input from editors but also from participating contacts or
partners.
So far we used direct mailing, but future initiatives might include a number of
publications in specialized magazines and attending colloquia and tradeshows, where we
will also present the EPOCH showcases.
By doing this, we hope to stimulate the inflow of information on technological
developments, and arrive at a real technology-push collaboration with the industry and
technology developers.
As suggested in the Stakeholder Needs report (WP 2.1), the research for all work
packages should give priority to a bottom up approach, starting with data collection and
processing and covering all successive steps of the “pipeline”, from data collection to
dissemination. As said earlier, future research will cover all these steps.
5 Conclusions
Many of the technological developments we have seen have a clear potential for the
domain of Cultural Heritage.
There are broadly 2 categories of technologies: those that improve on a known product
or technology, and those that are fundamentally new and offer new perspectives yet
unknown (to the world of Cultural Heritage).
An example of an improved technology is large format TFT monitors (they seem to grow
in size every day). Images on these large screens can be viewed by a bigger audience,
offering a better image, reduced weight and lower power consumption. But their
technology is not fundamentally different from the one used on 17’’ PC monitors; they
are only the result of advances in production process.
The same can be said about many other applications or technologies we have described
in our blog. Most are the result of better production facilities, bigger production figures
resulting in lower prices, that make many technologies that were once reserved for very
specialised users suddenly accessible to everyone.
A good example is digital cameras: although these products are not new – they have
been around for more than 10 years – they were mostly used by professional
photographers with large budgets. Today, it is almost impossible to buy a digital phone
that does not have an integrated camera.
This trickling down of technologies is of course of the biggest importance to our market.
An exercised mind will be able to develop new concepts, products and applications based
on now commonly accepted and generalised products, such as mobile phones or digital
camera’s.
These different approaches can result in better interactivity with the visitor of a museum
or archaeological site. Good examples have been found and are described in the following
pages, some of them in Cultural Heritage or very similar domains.
Another category of technologies are those that are completely new.
Some of them offer completely unknown perspectives in Cultural Heritage.
We therefore strongly believe that these are the technologies that need to be
further investigated and developed.
The first is Radio Frequency Identification or RFID.
This technology – which is described further in detail in the appendix – is developed
primarily for the retail and cattle industry. In a way, RFIDs can be compared to barcodes,
where a unique code is read into a database. These tags can however be read from a
distance – ranging from a few cm to many meters – when they pass in front of a reader.
RFID technology has many potential applications in CH, from the tagging of artefacts –
the metadata of which can be read without touching the object – to imbedding tags into
admission tickets of museums, so these can trigger multimedia applications from a
distance.
Tagging artefacts, objects and paintings will open new ways of asset tracking and
security systems, but also pave the way to innovative content presentation systems.
If each object in a museum is tagged, a multimedia application on a portable device such
as a PDA, equipped with an RFID reader, could (automatically) show information when
that object is reached.
Depending on the intended target group, this info could be scientific, managerial, or
informative.
The PDA could receive the data – text, images, video and sound – kept on a central
database over a wireless network. If the visitor chose the topic that interests him the
most, say a certain historical period, he could be directed towards the most relevant
exhibits by his PDA.
RFIDs imbedded into the admission ticket are able to start and configure multimedia
systems from a distance. As a kiosk would for example be able to recognize the visitor,
even which one arrived first, it could adapt its content according to age group, language
or interest.
The main culprit, and greatest danger in deploying RFID in the CH domain, is the lack of
standards. There are different technologies, frequencies etc, and to our knowledge no
rules for defining the unique tag ID.
Deciding on standards for RFID use in CH is a project in itself, choosing the technology
another one.
Another technology group that deserves further development in CH are Personal Area
Networks, or PAN.
Bluetooth allows communication between different devices over a short distance. This
communication protocol makes small workgroups possible, without interference from
other visitors. A family can share the same audio comment on a portable device over
Bluetooth headphones, and interact without being heard by other visitors.
There are a lot of devices on the market, such as PDAs or mobile phones that use
Bluetooth and a number that are starting to show, such as Bluetooth enabled stereo
headset. What has to be developed now are the right applications and content to use
these in Cultural Heritage.
New wireless technologies and user location systems – GPS, Wireless LAN – make it
possible to send content to a user when and where he needs it. These location aware
devices could give rise to a whole new spectrum of services, from guidance systems to
games. Interesting applications and good content could be designed here, probably at
little cost as all the hardware is readily available off the shelf.
Reversely, as location aware devices can remember where a visitor has been, this info
can be used by museum or sites to improve their tours and services, or by the visitor as
an e-trail.
Whatever technology already on the market or developed in the future: when deciding to
use one or develop applications for it, such fundamental elements as cost effectiveness,
maintainability and sustainability must not be forgotten. This is particularly true of the
CH domain.
As our research has shown in the Vertical Integration work package 2.2, most problems
arising from the use of even seemingly simple technologies such as interactive kiosks
stem from the – inherent to the Cultural Heritage domain – lack of technical knowledge
of those who have to maintain them. When introducing new technologies to the CH
market, education and training will therefore be one of the major factors defining success
or failure.
Specialised maintenance structures or organisations might even have to be set up,
maybe sector or technology wide, instead of dependent of one museum or site.
To conclude, one caveat: any technological development has to fit the needs of
archaeologists, museums, sites and visitors. If not, the integration of new technologies
will further alienate those users from the opportunities that are created by technology in
the Cultural Heritage domain.
6 Bibliography
6.1 Conference proceedings
Siggraph
VAST
CAA
ICHIM
CASA
http://www.siggraph.org
http://www.enamecenter.org/pages/events_past_VAST.html
http://www.caaconference.org/
http://www.ichim.org/
http://www.miralab.unige.ch/subpages/casa2004/index.cfm
6.2 Technology watch reports
Digicult
http://www.digicult.info/pages/techwatch.php
Technology Watch Reports
The DigiCULT Technology Watch Report is a major annual volume, covering six
technologies expected to have a substantial impact on the future of cultural heritage
projects, professionals working in the sector, and approaches to cultural materials. Their
primary aim is to give a solid and impartial grounding in new and developing
technologies to those without the time or the IT confidence to gain an independent
familiarity, together with a view of the changing technological and methodological
landscapes.
JISC Joint Information Systems Committee http://www.jisc.ac.uk/
Technology and Standards Watch
Technology and Standards Watch helps keep track of developments in information and
communication technologies that might have high impact on the core business of Further
and Higher education in five to ten years' time. It commissions reports on specific
technologies and provides many links from this site to technology resources elsewhere on
the Web.
6.3 Technology watch websites
BBC technology
Endgadget
NearNear Future
Futurefeeder
And many others
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/default.stm
http://www.engadget.com/
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/
http://futurefeeder.com/

D2.3.1-Report on Horizontal Int

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